Report sent on 'religious hatred' at Gail Sheridan's police interview

Gail Sheridan: Officers questioned her during a perjury investigation.© STV

A report into claims of religious hatred during Gail Sheridan’s interview with police during a perjury investigation has been sent to prosecutors.

Lothian and Borders Police have sent the report to the procurator fiscal over allegations about the conduct of the officers who questioned former MSP Tommy Sheridan’s wife in February 2008.

Ms Sheridan, 48, had her rosary beads taken away at a police station in Edinburgh.

She was being interviewed over allegations she and her husband had lied under oath during the politician's defamation action against the News of the World newspaper.

Sheridan was jailed for three years in January 2011 after being found guilty of perjury during the 2006 action. Ms Sheridan also stood trial, but the charges against her were dropped.

The former MSP was awarded £200,000 in damages after winning the defamation case but a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found him guilty of lying about the tabloid's claims he was an adulterer who visited a swingers' club.

Police also likened Ms Sheridan's silence to techniques used by terrorists during the interview.

At the perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow, an interview transcript was read to the jury by Detective Sergeant Stuart Harkness, of Lothian and Borders Police. He was the deputy senior investigating officer on the case.

It ran: "Gail, I must ask you at this time who has schooled you to sit and focus at one point on the wall because I've interviewed people arrested under the Terrorist Act and that's exactly the kind of activity I've experienced from them."

A complaint was made on behalf of the couple to the Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police about the conduct of officers in January 2011.

A Lothian and Borders police spokesman said: "Following a complaint made against Lothian and Borders police, a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal and we are currently awaiting further instruction."

A Crown Office spokesman said: "Following a complaint made against Lothian and Borders Police, a report has now been received by the procurator fiscal for east of Scotland. At this stage the matter remains under consideration."

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